"Your Gift to the Yankees Keeps Going, Going, Going…" DMI Blog 8/20/7

Here's a taste (click the title above to read it at DMI with hyperlinks):

"The new project is one of the dirtiest economic development deals in recent memory. Because the Yankees hired masterminds of land use policy, public subsidies and IRS regulations, along with a few former elected officials including one Presidential candidate from New York, the project steamrolled through the public review process leaving community members with little time to organize against it. In the blink of an eye (well it took nine days, but by Albany standards, that’s pretty quick), 22 acres of heavily used park land across the street from the current stadium were covertly seized and handed to the Yankees. No public notice. No public hearing. No Nothing.

"But there is one chance to salvage some public space and money in this project. That’s for the city to pull the plug on the construction of three new parking garages and return that to open space for the community. This part of the deal isn’t done and the city’s Industrial Development Agency still must get public comments on its proposal to allocate $219 million in tax-free bonds to a non-profit for the construction and renovation of over 9,000 parking spaces. This includes 2,500 new spaces even though the new stadium will have about 5,000 fewer seats than the current one.

"There will be a public hearing on the proposal on September 6th at 10:00 am at 110 William St."